One of the baby goats was feeling rather friendly today. It was small enough that it could climb into the manger and from there it kept leaping into the arms of visitors who nervously shoved it back into its pen.

We've been more or less homeschooling Elizabeth for the last couple of years (yes, I am aware that she is only four).

As part of our homeschooling routine I discovered that Elizabeth really, really likes busy work. Seems to me that practicing letters is more effective and fun in the context of "real" stuff like writing birthday cards, but while she likes writing birthday cards, Elizabeth adores writing out sheets of upper and lower case letters.

I discovered some pretty good workbooks at Staples published by Canadian Curriculum Press ("Reading", "Writing", "Math"), but Elizabeth's current favourite is a wipe off the answer when you are done addition book. I kind of wish I'd gotten markers instead of expensive erasable crayons that break and don't always write, but since Elizabeth finds erasing stuff half the fun she's a big fan.

When Matthew was born Elizabeth suddenly morphed into this huge kid with a giant head, and it turns out that she has acquired all these new skills to go along with her new giantness. Like being able to unlock our front door. Use a mouse to drag and drop items on the computer. Figure out basic math problems and draw recognizable bees...

Matthew had his two month shots today and his first "well baby" appointment. Altogether he had seven vaccines - one orally, and the rest combined into two shots.

Elizabeth came too, somewhat to the consternation of the doctor and nurse. Apparently toddlers can be protective of younger siblings getting shots. Elizabeth was very good and didn't interfere - instead explaining to Matthew that it was "no big deal" and would help make special white blood cells so he didn't get sick.

Matthew was as upset as he's ever gotten after the second shot, but was easily comforted. Elizabeth freaked out every time we changed her diaper for days after her first shots, but Matthew is definitely less worried.

We stopped at Matthew's first restaurant on the way back from Toronto. It took us eleven months to work up the courage to do that with Elizabeth. Her first restaurant was the Foolish Chicken. Matthew's was East Side Mario's. He didn't scream, so we considered it a success. We'd even take him out again, though perhaps not during cranky hour.

Matthew has now been introduced to many relatives and he even smiled at some of them.

Grandma H brought along an Angolan pillow. Quite a number tried it out and cousin Chris may actually have managed to fall asleep. I remain skeptical that a hunk of wood can be considered comfortable while sleeping...